Built my first pair in a friend's Dad's shop using University Drivers in 1964, but the x-overs were none too sophisitcated, played loud though. After going through several RSL models I finally graduated to "The Show" in 1976 with Magnaplanar Tympani 1Ds and an RH Labs Sub. They were driven by a Spatial Cohearence pre-amp and a Threshhold 4ooA amp. 1977 started HT with an Advent CRT projector and curved solid screen. We used Sailboat rigging to hang the screen from the ceiling and pull it up flat to the ceiling when not in use. An understanding Wife was part of the necessary components. She is the one High End Component I still have from those days. Norm

As a student in the early 80s I bought Kef's 104/2 while still living in Amsterdam. After various upgrades of my primary systesm I have continued to use the Kef's in my secondary system. In fact, I ended up shipping them to the US when I moved here 10 years ago, and they are still in service in my living room systems for the kids to listen to Dora the explorer.

Goodbye to a great audio and video genius and writer... JOHN GANNON. I enjoyed your friendship, wit and a nice long run we took around Indianapolis at CEDIA years back... and for buying my Runco 980 Ultra years back... you saved my ass! Rest in peace.

I liked my ESS Heil AMT-1s a lot (Air Motion Transformers). The crystal-clear highs were a revelation, the lower range less so. Early '70s; replaced my Bose 901s that I'd bought a few years earlier (I relegated the Bose to rear-channels in my Quad setup).

I think there was a time when the word "Audiophile" had a more positive connotation associated with it. For me, "Audiophile" begins to become corrupt and distasteful sometime in the early to mid 1980's as various companies began to market "snake oil".

I believe the context that Steve refers to would be someone who was/is looking for maximum fidelity, dynamic range and reproduction of the source material. Art I would imagine someone like yourself might well fall into that category with your love of home theater and your quest for accurate reproduction of your source.

The work of people like William Wright, Paul Klipch, H. H. Scott, Henry Kloss, Malcolm Low, J. Anton Hoffman, Ray Dolby, Peter Walker, etc. are IMHO the basis and definition of the word "Audiophile".

Early 80s: Phase Research Little Ds. Ribbon tweeter/mid, time-phased, transmission/'compression' line large bookshelf. Great speakers. Designed by Phil Clements who later founded Clements Audio. I believe he's responsible too for the H-Pas bass loading scheme Atlantic Tech. speakers are using now which sounds like an evolution of his compression-line loading system.

there are several accepted definitions for the term audiophile. If you consider yourself an audiophile, then the question becomes what was your first pair of speakers from the point in time you became an audiophile. the term is similar to the term videophile and the same question could be asked what was your first display when you first became a videophile.

Re audiophile, it doesn`t really matter what brand, what model, or whether it was a DIY.
clearly we all had radios before we became audiophiles and we all had TVs before we considered ourselves videophiles.

Mine were AR2AX that were unburied in the music room back room in high school in Grade 8.

My buddy and I bought some speakers from a local company shortly thereafter that went under call Web Sound, that built a crapload of speakers using CTS drivers. Well built, probably not audiophile to anyone else, but to us they were.

I went down a different road, into pro audio, and remember drooling at the sound when I installed my first nightclub system. 8 X JBL 2225 15s, 8 X 10" JBL mids (can't remember the model) and 8 X 10" JBL 2405 bullets. All driven by BGW 750 amps and Tapco 3 way crossovers.

To this day I still love me some classic 70s vintage JBL or EV speakers compared to audiophile type stuff.

Klipsch KG4. Bought in 1989 as a sophmore in college. i think they cost around $450 or $500. Does not sound like much today but as a college student it ensured that i ate nothing but popcorn for a couple of months! I still have great memories of those little wooden boxes. I ended up trading them in for two pairs of Klipsch Forte speakers in graduate school when i made the move to a 5.0 surround system. I bought those in late 1996 for $1200 a pair (excluding the trade-in). I have not heard any of the current Klipsch line as I have long since moved away from horn based speakers but they used to give you HUGE bang for your buck.

I have the drivers, all in mint shape, the equalizer, but the cabinets got flooded out, so all the veneer is peeling off. Total cost into them (customer kept the woofers for new surround speakers), about $300 so far. $150 for the speakers sans woofers, and got a local speaker shop to build me new original EVs for $75 each.